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Maybe no smoking started it, but over the years it seems the airlines have gone out of their way to make air travel as miserable as possible. I started flying back in the 1970s. Back then, flying was still a luxury and people were treated like valued customers. Today, passengers are treated like cattle. Everything about flying has become inconvenient and uncomfortable.
And having the TSA grope you has made flying worse.
I think complaining about flying has become a national past time.
You can fly cost to coast for under $400, imaging what a 6 hour cab ride would cost. That only involves a beat up car and a guy with minimal training.
An airplane costs about $80M for a 737, and you are renting your seat. You are traveling through an environment Where you could only survive for about 30 seconds. So most of the things people complain about were brought about by ..... the customers.
If you want more space then don’t select flights for lowest price, select them for most room. You can find this on Seat Guru. A few years back when there was excess capacity in the industry AA removed a couple of rows of seats and added leg room. Did you guys go out an buy tickets on AA. Apparently not because they added them back.
On UA you can pay a few more dollars for economy plus. If you aren’t willing to pay $40 for it then you have put an exact price on what it is worth to you.
Same thing with food, baggage etc.